It was he who established the Akal Takht. After Guru had completed the Udasis he founded the city of Kartarpur, in Punjab. Although military conquest occurred in the past, military campaigns have been rare since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Diffusion of Islam Follow along as we show how Islam spread from a small community to one of the largest religions in the world. It is impossible to know why certain religions have appeal in particular times or places, but they do, and that appeal can wear off over time. Before his death he had instructed the construction of the Harmandir Sahib. The LibreTexts libraries are Powered by MindTouch® and are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot. Legal. Christianity was founded in the eastern Mediterranean, although much like Buddhism, its greatest successes were found in other parts of the world (Figure 6.13). Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The Mughal's who feared the expansion of Sikhism became a reoccurring problem to the expansion of the Sikhs. This is not necessarily through conquest or conversion, but mostly through current demographics. There are more than 750 million followers today. The Diffusion of Catholicism Currently, Catholicism (Roman) is the largest religious group of Christianity in the world. In fact, that is the key to a successful universalizing religion. Contagious diffusion is most often seen in a religious context as the result of direct proselytizing. In the same way that it has always changed, it will continue to do so. Religion uses nearly all forms of diffusion to reproduce itself across space. From its origins, the religion spread across what is now India and Nepal. His time was marked by scientific, cultural, and religious prosperity. Like many other religions, it spread in other directions, particularly to the south and east (Figure 6.12). Watch the recordings here on Youtube! [ "article:topic", "license:ccby", "showtoc:no", "authorname:dorellehenderson" ]. This will help explain why some places will become Buddhist or Christian at one point in history, but become Muslim at another. Nanak's sister, Bibi Nanaki, also contributed to the cause by heavily supporting Nanak in his attempts and by helping bring the singing of hymns into the prayer of God. The religion includes over one billion members and more than one sixth of the world's population. Islamic art and music also flourished significantly during his reign. The diffusion of religion, language, in addition to other aspects of culture historically caused by mass migrations, travel, colonization, ostracism, inter group communication, Interactions among people allowed for the creations of simplified language interconnectedness demonstrated by the developments of Lingua francas, creolization, etc. Remind yourself that these religious expansions occurred at different times. Later, Christianity was promoted through the process of colonialism, and as such, it was modified by the process that distributed it. Finally, in the 18th century the Sikhs managed to find a safe era, under the rule of Ranjit Singhs. Islam provides a blueprint for most aspects of life and as such, has often been associated with rapid expansion driven by military conquest. Relocation diffusion, oftenthrough missionary work, brings “great leaps forward” by crossing space to secure footholds in far-away places. To keep this in perspective, that is much lower than the percentage of Muslims in Spain in 1492. By this time there were 10000 people following the Islamic religion. Start studying Exploring Culture: Diffusion of Religion. It is not unusual for a religion to prove popular far from its place of origin. ... and was the fifth Abbasid Caliph. Unless otherwise noted, LibreTexts content is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. The relative distributions of Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims have in fact changed little in half a millennium. There are more Catholics than there are people in any other Christian denomination. The successor of Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das (the fourth Guru) encouraged rapid expansion of Sikhism and the city of Amritsar that had became the center of the religion. Due to its position as the oldest large, universalizing religion, Buddhism is a good example of the lifecycle of a religion. By Staff Writer Last Updated Apr 10, ... Japan and finally Tibet, where it eventually found its home. For more information contact us at info@libretexts.org or check out our status page at https://status.libretexts.org. During the next 500 years, the religion continued to become more important in these countries and was eventually adopted as the official state religion. Since then many of the Sikhism faith have immigrated to Western nations, mainly in North America. Buddhism originated near the current Nepalese-Indian border. All these forms of diffusion produce patterns of diffusion that are complex. Christianity initially grew in areas dominated by the Roman Empire,but it would adapt and thrive in many places. The most recent of the world’s largest religions, Islam is also the one that is expanding the fastest (Figure 6.14). Most of the Meccans did end up converting to Islam, though Muhammad didn't force anybody to convert. It spread in all directions but looking at a current religious map reveals that the process did not end 1500 years ago. Religious Origins and Diffusion Hinduism is the oldest major religion originating around the Indus Valley (within modern day Pakistan) around 4,000 years ago. This became the Sikh Holy Book. Hierarchical diffusion generally involves the conversion of a king, emperor, or other leader who then influences others to convert. The spread of Christianity helped drive the process that created the modern world. Although there has been some migration of Muslims into western Europe, the percentages of Muslims in each country is small. Many Meccans had expected Muhammad and his followers to be mean to them but they were actually faced with tolerance and acceptance. Diffusion. Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, saw the mass expansion of Amritsar. The Sikhism religion was founded in the Punjab region of today's India and Pakistan by Guru Nanak in the second half have the 15th century. What Was the Diffusion of Buddhism? Another important thing to remember is that the religious landscape is just a snapshot. We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. People of many kinds came to this city to worship along side Guru. Hierarchical diffusion generally involves the conversion of a king, emperor, or other leader who then influences others to convert. To the east and south, however, the religion continued and expanded. Hinduism diffused into Southeast Asia (mostly India) and into the island of Bali in Indonesia. Through out history they killed mass numbers of Sikhs. Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites. Religion uses nearly all forms of diffusion to reproduce itself across space. These maps can reinforce this idea in that they demonstrate the historical nature of current religious distributions. With the collapse of the Empire, Christianity became the only source of social cohesion in Europe for centuries. Have questions or comments? 6.3: Diffusion of Major Religions. Relocation diffusion, oftenthrough missionary work, brings “great leaps forward” by crossing space to secure footholds in far-away places. He also put together the social codes of the religion which became the Guru Granth Sahib. France has the largest percentage of Muslims at 7.5%. The emperor of the Mughal Monarch, Jahangir found this to be a threat and had Arjan Dev tortured and killed. Missed the LibreFest? Hargobind. Much of its territory on the Indian subcontinent would become mostly Hindu or Muslim. The one to take his place was Guru. This time was a time of prosperity for the Sikhs who once again began to dominate in different parts of the region.